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Reading Obituaries

One of my favorite writers, William Saroyan, set out to write about each and every entry in the Necrology section of Variety Magazine for the year 1976.

"Why do I write?  Why am I writing this book?  To save my life, to keep from dying, of course.  That is why we get up in the morning."
"Obituaries is not about Death, it  is abouit that large mystery that has come out of light and is, of course, called Life. (And the hell with that, too)."

I was reminded of Saroyan's book by one of those only in the New York Times obituaries that read like great fiction.  Dont' miss "Emilie Muse, 98, Daredevil Who Dared Not Discuss Past, Dies" and then go back and enjoy "Sidney Frank, 86, Dies; Took a German Drink and a Vodka Brand to Stylish Heights" (NYT Select required) and Dai Ailian, Vital Figure in Building Ballet in China, Dies at 89.

A New York Timesman named Alden Whitman pioneered the paper's obituary coverage; interviewing  notable people with the promise he wouldn't write a word until after they died.  Sidney Zion wrote in the Nation, "in all the history of journalism, including the caves, nobody ever thought to draw the future dead into their own obituaries ."

As Saryoyan himself said to the A.P. a day or so before he died, "Everybody has to die, but I always believed an exception would be made in my case. Now what?"

Cheney Blasts Hunter, Wounds Bush

    Oh well done, Dick. Who's the big guy now?  I'm sure you've always wanted to know what it was like to shoot something bigger than a quail, you little draft dodger.  You know, you kind of resemble a fat little bird yourself, don't you?  And speaking of your weight, you don't look the kind of heart patient who's improving his diet.  Why is that you refuse to release your cholesterol numbers, anyway?  Remember when Mary Matalin said your "undisclosed location" was the basement of the Palm? That was bad PR, in the next few days there's going to be a lot more of it.  Starting with questions about why the White House sat on this story for 24 hours.  Spin this, Karl.

   

Bonus video:  Watch (or read) Scotty McLellan sweat and squirm  at today's briefing. 

    "Q: But let's just be clear here. The Vice President of the United States accidentally shoots a man and he feels that it's appropriate for a ranch owner who witnessed this to tell the local Corpus Christi newspaper, and not the White House press corps at large, or notify the public in a national way?"

"If You Tell the Truth, You Don't Have to Remember Anything"

Mark Twain said that.  In politics, it's sometimes hard to find folks who understand the value of truth.
Take the campaign of the flying Dutchman of politics, William Weld, as reported in the New York Times story below.

February 4, 2025
Aides Re-edited News Articles on Candidate's Web Site

By PATRICK D. HEALY
As William F. Weld runs for governor of New York this year, his campaign has put a new spin on the old political rule of having a positive message.

I love political stories that start like this: establishing cred by quoting some "old political rule" that really isn't a rule at all, like, say, the importance of getting more votes or in this case, "having a positive (as opposed to negative?) message.  Beware of false prophesies.

Campaign aides have significantly altered two newspaper articles on his Web site about his bid for governor, removing all negative phrases about him, like "mini-slump" and "dogged by an investigation," and passages about his political problems.

You see, this is why you need actual newspapers and real reporters, as opposed to getting all your news from Wikipedia. It takes a journalist to find colorful words like "mini-slump" and "dogged" to put in embarassing public places, like the front pages of newspapers.

Also removed were references to a federal investigation of Decker College, a Kentucky trade school that Mr. Weld led until he left to run for governor last fall; the college collapsed into bankruptcy weeks later amid allegations of financial aid fraud. And criticism of Mr. Weld by a former New York Republican senator, Alfonse D'Amato, was removed.

Unlike much of what I write about here, this is a subject I know quite a bit about.  I've reprinted news articles countless times in the direct mail packages I've created for national, state and local campaigns.  I've highlighted the good parts of a clip, pulled out quotes and of course, made fair use of our friend the ellipses.  But this, as the WASPs say, is just not done.  How rude!

The Weld campaign placed the sanitized articles, still under the reporters' bylines, on its Web site, weldfornewyork.org under the heading "news." Nothing told readers about the changes.

Lively newspaper writing, you can't beat it.  "Sanitized articles."  Then the voice of doom sentence, as ominous as those four notes from Beethoven. "Nothing told readers about the changes." 

But wait, there's more.

It is generally considered inappropriate for a political campaign to alter news articles or photos and then render them as the true content. "It's totally dishonest" said George Arzt, a New York political communications consultant who worked for Eliot Spitzer, now the leading Democratic candidate for governor, in 1998. "I've never heard of such a thing done by a major player in a gubernatorial race."

But a Weld spokesman defended the practice, comparing it to selecting positive blurbs to run in movie advertisements.

"Inappropriate?"  I'll say.  Like a movie blurb?  What do you want to bet that the Weld spokesman speaking here spake before for a commercial, not political boss and will not speak tomorrow? 

      Continue reading the Times article below, and come back later for more truth-avoiding from NASA.